MD Please Help, Unbalanced MCAT and deciding next step and potential school list

[wanderingservant]

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[Mr.Smile12]

1. cGPA: 3.70, sGPA: 3.65 (4.0 GPA last two semesters)
2. MCAT: 514 (129/124/130/131)
3. Residence: Maryland
4. Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
5. Undergraduate Institute: Top 40 Private
6. Clinical experience: Volunteer around 150 hours, Scribe around 200 hours
7. Research Experience: 1000+ hours, presented abstract and poster. Submitting manuscript to journals, rejected from one so far 🙁
8. Shadowing Hours : Target is 50 hours by application time, currently have around 15 excluding scribing, should be all set God willing
9. Non-Clinical Volunteering: 200+ hours tutoring/mentoring inner city and first generation high school and middle school students
10. Other Activities/Leadership: Resident Assistant, Orientation Leader, Teaching Assistant, and Executive board for one club.
11. Awards: Deans List

So basically I'm slightly afraid I'll get screened out by most schools due to my 124 in CARS, especially paired with my average GPA. But I'd rather not retake for now since I take the risk of under performing and my score going down in the other sections.

My current school list (will probably add more this is just for sure) for schools I definitely plan on applying to:

• University of Maryland
• Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Quinnipiac
• Seton Hall
• Nova Southeastern
• University of Vermont
• West Virginia University
• Virginia Tech
• Virginia Commonwealth
• Penn State

Any advice to beef up my application? Next steps?

Hopefully you've signed up for today's AAMC Virtual Fair, but networking with current students and admissions staff is very important to discern which schools may put much more weight on CARS during initial screening.

How about schools in New Jersey like Rowan (DO?) or Rutgers? Philly schools like Drexel or Temple? They aren't that far away from you as a Maryland resident. I will leave it up to others to provide more comprehensive lists for you.

 

[bluepeony]

Hopefully you've signed up for today's AAMC Virtual Fair, but networking with current students and admissions staff is very important to discern which schools may put much more weight on CARS during initial screening.

How about schools in New Jersey like Rowan (DO?) or Rutgers? Philly schools like Drexel or Temple? They aren't that far away from you as a Maryland resident. I will leave it up to others to provide more comprehensive lists for you.

Fyi, Rowan and Rutgers have a heavy in-state bias. Drexel and Temple not so much.

 

[wanderingservant]

Thank you for the feedback! I was probably gonna end up adding temple and drexel, maybe jefferson

 

[wanderingservant]

@Faha @Goro I would love some feedback!

 

[Faha]

You have a good list and should receive several interviews. Consider adding these schools:
New York Medical College
Albany
Hofstra
Einstein
Seton Hall
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Wake Forest
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
George Washington
Rosalind Franklin
TCU-UNT

 

[pianoguy123]

I got 13 interview invites with a similar MCAT (bombed my CARS). Have you noticed the only people saying how important the CARS section is are test prep companies on YouTube masquerading as student-centered self-help blogs? The biggest thing holding you back is probably your average GPA tbh. Your list looks great, I would even add a couple higher tiered schools. You never know! If anything, your MCAT/GPA combo just means you will have to apply to more schools. Good luck!